Posted on 03/13/2011 2:31:04 PM PDT by Second Amendment First
A Kingman man has been acquitted of trespassing charges more than a year after he attempted to bring a pitchfork into the county administration building. Judge Pro-tempore Paul Julien ruled March 5 that Mervin Fried was not guilty of third-degree trespassing.
Fried was arrested for attempting to bring a pitchfork into the building on Feb. 16, 2010, after a protest outside of the county administration building. He was stopped at the door by County Manager Ron Walker, who asked him to leave the pitchfork outside. Fried was arrested when he refused and tried to enter the building with the pitchfork.
In court, Walker testified that he had the authority to control access to the building and submitted copies of several county rules that allegedly gave him that right. He said he allowed residents carrying guns to enter the building because the county had not adopted the ordinance that would restrict guns from the county building and did not have gun lockers to store the guns yet.
Walker said when he stopped Fried at the door and asked him to leave the pitchfork outside, Fried asked "Why?" He testified that based on that response he didn't know what Fried might do and decided that he might be a threat.
In court documents, Walker "agreed that a pitchfork is a less dangerous weapon than a handgun depending on 'what they did with it.'" Walker said he was concerned about the county's liability under the Second Amendment if he prohibited people carrying guns from entering the building.
Fried testified he ignored Walker's request because he didn't think there was any law prohibiting him from entering the building with a pitchfork.
In his ruling, Julien found that Walker did have the authority to restrict access to the building. However, Walker's "decision to allow members of the public with holstered handguns access to the building but deny access to the defendant because he had a 'holstered' pitchfork was arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable," Julien wrote.
Without addressing Fried's claims of violations of his First Amendment rights to free speech, Julien found him not guilty of trespassing.
"I'm glad this is resolved," Fried said.
"Mr. Fried has had his day in court. And he was acquitted," the county's official statement on the matter read.
Fried said he plans to pursue claims against the county for violating his First and Second Amendment rights for arresting him after the protest.
He said that the Second Amendment does not specifically state that "arms" only apply to firearms. He also claims that his bail was unreasonable, that the failure to include his case on the court docket was deliberate, that Walker tried to get him fired by calling his boss, and the county deliberately edited him out of video of county Board meetings.
He also plans to follow up on a notice of claim he filed with the county last month. A notice of claim is a document that warns the county that a person feels that the county has discriminated against them in some way and will file a lawsuit unless the situation is fixed.
In his notice, Fried claimed that the county injured his First Amendment rights when it denied him his right as an elected Republican precinct committeeman to use the a meeting room in the county administration building to meet with his constituents in December based on the "political intent" of his request. Fried points to a policy the county approved in March that states that while politicking is prohibited on county grounds, elected officials are allowed to use the building to meet, update and discuss issues with their constituents. Fried claims that as a Republican precinct committeeman, he is an elected county official.
He also claims that county officials' actions have caused him "emotional distress, suppression of his First Amendment rights, and the loss of the ability to communicate effectively with his constituents in a manner equal to that of any other elected or duly appointed official." He is claiming $501,000 in damages.
What effect the case will have on the Monday arrest of Golden Valley resident Jim Kanelos for trespassing is unknown. Kanelos was released Monday afternoon.
Cool! If this crap goes any further, only outlaws will have pitchforks.
The forgotten 3Rd Amendment: Good animal husbandry being essential to the liberty of any people, the right to keep and bear pitchforks shall not be infringed.
LOL
I was thinking - where are the torches?
Dang, I forgot all about the torches! Wait, can I bring my BernzOmatic?
Nice to see that some common sense was applied in this case.
If pitchforks are outlawed, only pot farmers will have pitchforks!;)
Yeah, except it took thirteen months for the commonsense application.
From Mervin's FB page.
I’d be interested to learn how getting the taxpayers to fork over a half a million will ease anguish this poor man suffered...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.